Audio playback systems comprising multiple loudspeakers are frequently used to reproduce an audio scene represented by a multichannel audio signal, wherein the respective channels of the multichannel audio signal are played back on respective loudspeakers. The multichannel audio signal may for example have been recorded via a plurality of acoustic transducers or may have been generated by audio authoring equipment. In many situations, there are bandwidth limitations for transmitting the audio signal to the playback equipment and/or limited space for storing the audio signal in a computer memory or in a portable storage device. There exist audio coding systems for parametric coding of audio signals, so as to reduce the bandwidth or storage needed. On an encoder side, these systems typically downmix the multichannel audio signal into a downmix signal, which typically is a mono (one channel) or a stereo (two channels) downmix, and extract side information describing the properties of the channels by means of parameters like level differences and crosscorrelation. The downmix and the side information are then encoded and sent to a decoder side. On the decoder side, the multichannel audio signal is reconstructed, i.e. approximated, from the downmix under control of the parameters of the side information.
In view of the wide range of different types of devices and systems available for playback of multichannel audio content, including an emerging segment aimed at end-users in their homes, there is a need for new and alternative ways to efficiently encode multichannel audio content, so as to reduce bandwidth requirements and/or the required memory size for storage, facilitate reconstruction of the multichannel audio signal at a decoder side, and/or increase fidelity of the multichannel audio signal as reconstructed at a decoder side. There is also a need to facilitate playback of encoded multichannel audio content on different types of speaker systems, including systems with fewer speakers than the number of channels present in the original multichannel audio content.
All the figures are schematic and generally only show parts which are necessary in order to elucidate the invention, whereas other parts may be omitted or merely suggested.